~~Enjoying the hobby one flight at a time~~

It's probably like asking about Rotorstar servos, not likely to get much response about them. They are priced where they seem even more likely to be too good to be true, but the set I have in a Raptor 50 Titan seen to be working pretty good so far.

Allen Dye

Bill,

Here is how this works for a lot of the third party servo providers who do not OEM their servos. There are several servo mfg's in Asia that kinda operate like a servo buffet. They have basic servo designs from which to choose, and then you the seller can decide on the spec and quality of things like motors and so forth. They likely have precanned options as well. You could have "Bill Vail" servos is you want to write Servo King a check. Now, to an extent, the price for which these servos sell is based on ingredient cost, but beyond that it come done to how much tiering there is in the sales network. I am sure that Bert had to carefully run the numbers for the servos he has made for him to allow him to make enough as importer and then for his dealers to make money too.

Some of these third party servos are just fine reliability-wise. Guys get lots of flight on them. Reliability is not the same as performance, and speed and torque are NOT all that make a good servo in spite of what the ads want you to believe. I also look at things like resolution, current consumption, and propensity for EMF issues. I will not beat a drum for one company versus another, but these details do matter for some people, so choose how you spend your money wisely. And always remember that with a typical ccpm model, if one cyclic servo fails, the model is going to crash. Maybe bad. God forbid hurt someone too in the process. At that point whatever was saved on the price of that servo is pretty much meaningless.

Team Synergy Team Futaba Team Kontronik USA Progressive RC

Hey Ben,

Thanks for the reply...

I could note that this year I've bought 4 sets of servos for helicopters totaling approximately $3,200. As a generality, I don't buy cheap components I can't trust.

With the above said, I have two largish fixed wing aircraft that need new servos. I would like to replace them with high voltage, brushless servos. The two aircraft require a total of 13 servos. Going with servos of a name brand could end up costing $2,000 or more. The servos I asked about in the subject line offer, 400+ in*oz of torque and .05 speed. They advertise made in Japan motor and potentiometers, CNC case, stainless gears, etc etc. All for $55 USD, shipped.

If these came from the smorgasbord you noted, how is a modeler to discern these servos from $150 BKs, $200 MKSs or $250 Futabas? You noted that there are other questions to be asked and answered beyond speed and torque. I understand that. But because I know little about any servo I buy, how do I know a re-seller didn't spec firmware from the buffet that will meet my needs?

As you know, some servo suppliers not only allow you to see many of the otherwise hidden specifications, they allow you to change them. While that says volumes about that supplier, it says nothing about the servos that are the topic of this thread.

In the end I see three choices:
-- Go with name brand, known-good servos - potentially expensive.
-- Solicit opinions from other modelers about unknown servos - potentially a dead-end.
-- Buy some, try some, and report what you learn - potentially expensive and a dead-end.

"Well, Nothing bad can happen now."

That about sums it up. I have never paid more than $100 but if I live much longer I guess I will. Tail servos excluded - I have paid near $200. You could cut out the middle man and go RC Japan with no service or warranty.

I lean towards #1...#2 can be dubious, depending....

Logo 600SXs, 800XX, TDR IIs

I have chosen path one, two and three. Why make a decision when you don't have to?

-- I received a new set of upper end servos this week for models that I care about or particularly scare me.

-- I have solicited opinions here on EVO P2 servos. What does it cost to ask right?

-- Having gotten no feedback (positive or negative) in option #2, I ordered 4 EVO P2s for my own evaluation.

My test of the new EVO servos will be imperfect at best. My large(ish) Stick will be the test-bed. I'd like to have 7 of them for my stick so that I can run them unregulated on 2S LiIon batteries. As it is, I ordered 4 of them for installation in the wing. (The wing currently has Futaba 9252s installed but they have become so jittery they are really beginning to worry me.) The problem with my plan is that I will have to run a regulator for the 3 remaining servos or use a 4 cell NiMh pack. The EVO servos are described as having very large current draw and that could be a problem.